George Soros’ left-wing play toy, Campus Progress, is having online temper tantrums because I denied one of its operatives press credentials to our 28th annual National Conservative Student Conference. Young America’s Foundation activities are open to legitimate members of the press, not to wannabe journalists from socialist smear groups.

The content supervisor of Campus Progress, Ben Adler, asked his intern (hopefully not a Clintonesque intern) Julie Siegel to cover our upcoming conference. The young woman tried to persuade me of her journalistic credentials in all sort of “laugh out loudable” ways, to quote Julie, including her history as a high school newspaper editor. But this wasn’t just any high school paper: The Lions Tale was an “award-winning” high school newspaper! If we are going to be in the business of drudging up adolescent accomplishments, I figure that I’m entitled hobnobbing privileges with Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards. After all, I have a basement full of basketball trophies.

But Julie kept scrapping at the table to find a journalistic crumb. She touted Campus Progress writers as being featured in The Nation, Alternet, and Daily Kos, while also adding that the group has interviewed Paul Begala, Al Franken, and Janeane Garofalo. The kicker, however, was when Julie said that Campus Progress was deserving of credentials because its subject matter is picked up by Google. Note: an Internet connection and an RSS feed will get your name on Google.

The National Conservative Student Conference broadcasts on C-SPAN for the entire country to see. We have nothing to hide. However, we are under no obligation, of any sort, to make room for a Soros front group. More fundamentally, granting press credentials to Campus Progress would affirm its spurious claim to be a respectable media outlet. We have too much self-respect for our organization in particular and for the press corps in general to put Campus Progress in the same room with highly regarded opinion journals such as Human Events and National Review and newspapers such as the Washington Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

That Campus Progress uses The Nation, Alternet, and Daily Kos to vouch for its credentialing qualifications is more evidence that the group is from another planet. Citing those publications works logically only if Young America’s Foundation considers The Nation, Alternet, and Daily Kos to be reasonable news services. We don’t. Just because Campus Progress grants credentials to anybody with a pulse and a pen does not mean that we do. Maybe when Campus Progress matures as an organization, its junior members will not scurry around for publicity or make a mountain out of a routine request’s getting denied.

Am I being a hypocrite because I was granted press credentials to Campus Progress’ conferences? That’s the idea the group is floating. Truth be told—something that may only happen periodically at Campus Progress—I have neither sought nor received any press credentials from its employees at anytime. So how did I write about both events? I’ll let you in on my little secret: I read published news reports and, voilΰ, opined.

Interestingly, the leftist group that claims to have “award-winning” journalists in its ranks engages in petty fights, rather than substantive inquiries. As an example, writers for Campus Progress said that my articles about their conferences were “amply documented” to have “multiple” errors. According to them, I got it wrong when I wrote that the rapper Fat Joe labeled women “bitches and hos.” I was quoting the Washington Post. Campus Progress alleges that what Fat Joe really said was that “some girls are bitches, some girls are hos.” My next “amply documented” error was referring to someone as a “campus director” when he was a “former campus director.” By focusing on trivial pursuits, my stalkers try to dodge the huge embarrassment of sponsoring a gang-banger, misogynist, and glutton to address its college students.

The “journalists” who call Campus Progress home are the same “journalists” who say with a straight face that black, queer, and gender studies programs at universities are not ideologically left-wing; the same “journalists” who call Rush a “permanent scab on the American political landscape,” and the same “journalists” who lampoon Dr. Laura’s commitment to traditional values just because some website purports the radio host had an extramarital affair.

Julie, don’t worry. You can still cover our conference. C-SPAN will be there, which means you’ll probably have the opportunity to watch our speakers live, catch the re-airings, and even TiVo the segments if you wish!